For attachment to vehicle seats, some child safety seats comprise a latch device having a horizontal slot which is engaged by a standard catch pin, commonly referred to as an “isofix” catch, fitted to the vehicle seat.
The latch device comprises a lever which rotates about a horizontal axis from a raised release position to a lowered lock position to hold the catch pin inside the slot.
International Patent Application WO03010024 describes a latch device comprising a button which slides perpendicularly to the axis of rotation of the lever into a forward position with respect to the horizontal slot to rotate the lever into the release position.
To release the lever, motion is transmitted from the button by a lock pin fitted to the button itself and engaging a cam on the lever. When the button is in the withdrawn position with respect to the horizontal slot, the lock pin engages an end portion of the cam to hold the lever in the lock position.
In addition to rotating, the lever also slides parallel to the button, so as to disengage the lock pin and rotate into the release position when the latch device is connected to the fixed catch on the vehicle seat.
In the above solution, latching onto the fixed catch is fairly difficult, on account of the catch, when being inserted inside the slot, cooperating with and resting on the lever to produce the compound movement of the lever. In fact, the catch pushes the lever to slide it first towards the button, and then rotate it into the release position.
Moreover, on account of the lever having to slide towards the button, a fair amount of travel of the latch device is required to insert the catch inside the slot.
A need is therefore felt to simplify operation when connecting the latch device to the fixed catch on the vehicle seat.
Furthermore, the form of the various component parts should also preferably be simplified.